Parking cooperative agencies that have not procured point of sales machines (POS) machines for collecting parking fee digitally will be asked to make an application for the procurement on Wednesday, senior KMC officials said.
The cooperative agencies managing the parking bays of the city have been asked to attend a meeting at the civic headquarters on Wednesday.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) launched the new system of collecting parking fees digitally on April 1.
Ideally, cash collection of parking fees should have stopped by now, but parking attendants in most parking bays in the city are still accepting cash payments.
Senior officials of the civic body said that on Wednesday the parking cooperative agencies will be asked once again to procure the POS machines.They will be warned that not using the POS machines for the collection of parking fees could go against them when parking bays are redistributed among agencies following a fresh tender later this year.
“There are 51 parking cooperatives manning the parking bays in the city. Twenty-six of them have not procured any POS machines. The remaining agencies, too, have not procured adequate numbers of POS machines. As a result, the digital collection of parking fees is happening in only a few parking bays,” said a KMC official.
The parking rates in Kolkata increased from April 1. The KMC had announced that when the new rates are implemented, all fee collection will be done only through POS machines.
Car owners are supposed to be given a printed slip with the time of entry when the car enters the parking bay. While leaving a receipt with the time of entry, the time of exit and the total amount to be paid will be handed over to the owner.
The first slip and the final receipt will be generated by the POS machine. This will reduce the scope for fleecing by parking attendants as the car occupant will only pay the amount mentioned in the receipt.
“If the POS machine is not available, overcharging could continue. We have to make sure that all parking bays start using the POS machines,” said a KMC official.
Car occupants can make the payment through debit/credit card or they can make UPI payments.
The occupant — if the person doesn’t have UPI payments option available or does not use debit/credit cards — can ask the parking attendant to send a text message to an acquaintance/family member/friend.
The text message will carry a link that can be used to make the payment by someone from another location. After the payment is done, the attendant will print the receipt and hand it over to the occupant of the car.
The new parking fee for four-wheelers is Rs 20 an hour for the first two hours. The old rate was Rs 10 an hour from 7am to 10pm. According to the new rates, the car parking fee is Rs 40 an hour from the third till the fifth hour. After that, the rate is Rs 100 an hour.
The old rates were uniform, while the new ones are graded.
The parking rates for two-wheelers have also gone up. The rate for parking for the first two hours is Rs 10 an hour. The rates are Rs 20 an hour for the third to fifth hour. The rate is Rs 50 an hour for every hour beyond the fifth hour.
